Prosecutors in Sen. Bob Menendez's bribery trial rest; Judge rejects defense request for acquittals

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors at the bribery trial of Sen. Bob Menendez rested their case on Friday after presenting evidence for seven weeks, enabling lawyers for the Democrat and two New Jersey businessmen to begin calling their own witnesses next week to support their claims that no crimes were committed and no bribes were paid.

On their final day of direct questioning, prosecutors elicited details about the senator’s financial records by questioning an FBI forensic accountant. Judge Sidney H. Stein then dismissed jurors for the weekend. Defense attorneys are scheduled to begin presenting their case on Monday in Manhattan federal court.

Later Friday, Stein rejected requests by lawyers for all three defendants that he acquit their clients on grounds that prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient evidence to the jury for it to deliver a verdict. The requests are a routine feature of trials after prosecutors rest.

Prosecutors say gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash found in a raid of Menendez’s home two years ago were bribes paid by three businessmen from 2018 to 2022 in return for favors that the senator, using his political power, carried out on their behalf.

Defense lawyers claim the gold belonged to his wife and that Menendez had a habit of storing cash at home after his family lost almost everything in Cuba before they moved to New York, where Menendez was born.

“The government hasn’t proven its case," the senator remarked as he left the courthouse Friday afternoon.

Menendez, 70, is on trial with two of the businessmen after a third pleaded guilty in a cooperation deal with the government and testified at the trial. Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, is also charged in the case, which was unveiled last fall. Her trial has been postponed while she recovers from breast cancer surgery. All defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Menendez’s lawyers are planning to spend up to three days presenting testimony from several witnesses to support their argument that Nadine Menendez, who was Nadine Arslanian when she began dating the senator in early 2018, kept him in the dark about her financial troubles. The couple married in the fall of 2020.

The defense also plans to introduce testimony to try to show that Arslanian was in close contact with the senator at the height of the alleged conspiracy in late 2018 and early 2019 because she was being harassed by an ex-boyfriend.

Stein said Thursday that defense lawyers can elicit testimony to counter evidence introduced by prosecutors that might otherwise be interpreted to suggest that Arslanian and the senator seemed to be closely following each other’s whereabouts because they were involved in the alleged conspiracy.

But he said he wouldn’t allow the jury to hear testimony that she underwent treatment at a hospital because of an abusive relationship with an ex-boyfriend. He said Friday that a witness also cannot testify about specific acts of stalking or abuse.

“This is not going to be ‘Days of Our Lives’ or some soap opera,” the judge warned lawyers Thursday.

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., leaves federal court following the day's proceedings in his bribery trial, Friday, June 28, 2024, in New York. Prosecutors rested on Friday after presenting evidence for seven weeks at the bribery trial of Menendez, enabling the Democrat and two New Jersey businessmen to begin calling their own witnesses next week to support defense claims that no crimes were committed and no bribes were paid. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., leaves federal court following the day's proceedings in his bribery trial, Friday, June 28, 2024, in New York. Prosecutors rested on Friday after presenting evidence for seven weeks at the bribery trial of Menendez, enabling the Democrat and two New Jersey businessmen to begin calling their own witnesses next week to support defense claims that no crimes were committed and no bribes were paid. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., leaves federal court following the day's proceedings in his bribery trial, Friday, June 28, 2024, in New York. Prosecutors rested on Friday after presenting evidence for seven weeks at the bribery trial of Menendez, enabling the Democrat and two New Jersey businessmen to begin calling their own witnesses next week to support defense claims that no crimes were committed and no bribes were paid. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister)

FILE- U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., leaves federal court following the day's proceedings in his bribery trial, Tuesday, June 18, 2024, in New York. Prosecutors rested on Friday, June 28, 2024, after presenting evidence for seven weeks at the bribery trial of Sen. Bob Menendez, enabling the Democrat and two New Jersey businessmen to begin calling their own witnesses next week to support defense claims that no crimes were committed and no bribes were paid. (AP Photo/Larry Neumeister, File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched at least one short-range ballistic missile off its east coast Monday, South Korea’s military said, a day after the North vowed “offensive and overwhelming” responses to a new U.S. military drill with South Korea and Japan.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was launched from North Korea's southeastern town of Jangyon at 5:05 a.m. It said an additional, unidentified ballistic missile launch trajectory was detected 10 minutes later, a suggestion that North Korea might have performed two missile launches.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said South Korea’s military has boosted its surveillance posture and is closely exchanging related information with the United States and Japan.

The launch came two days after South Korea, the U.S. and Japan ended their new multidomain trilateral drills in the region. In recent years, the three countries have been expanding their trilateral security partnership to better cope with North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats and China’s increasing assertiveness in the region.

The “Freedom Edge” drill was meant to increase the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The three-day drill involved a U.S. aircraft carrier as well as destroyers, fighter jets and helicopters from the three countries.

On Sunday, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a lengthy statement strongly denouncing the “Freedom Edge” drill, calling it an Asian version of NATO. It said the drill openly destroyed the security environment on the Korean Peninsula and contained a U.S. intention to lay siege to China and exert pressure on Russia.

The statement said North Korea will “firmly defend the sovereignty, security and interests of the state and peace in the region through offensive and overwhelming countermeasures.”

Monday’s launch was the North’s first weapons firing in five days. On Wednesday, North Korea launched what it called a multiwarhead missile in the first known launch of a developmental, advanced weapon meant to defeat U.S. and South Korean missile defenses. North Korea said the launch was successful, but South Korea dismissed the North’s claim as deception to cover up a failed launch.

In recent weeks, North Korea has also floated numerous trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea in what it has described as a tit-for-tat response to South Korean activists sending political leaflets via their own balloons. South Korea responded by briefly resuming its anti-Pyongyang frontline propaganda broadcasts for the first time in years.

In mid-June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin struck a deal vowing mutual defense assistance if either is attacked. Observers say the pact could embolden Kim to launch more provocations at South Korea. The U.S., South Korea and others believe Pyongyang has been supplying conventional weapons to Russia for its war against Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance.

Meanwhile, North Korea opened a key ruling party meeting Friday to determine what it called “important, immediate issues” related to works to further enhance Korean-style socialism. On the meeting’s second day, North Korea's leader spoke about “some deviations obstructing” efforts to improve the country's economic status and unspecified important tasks for resolving immediate policy issues, North Korea’s state media reported Sunday.

In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a U.S. fighter jet takes off from USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier during the Freedom Edge exercise by the U.S., Japanese and South Korea at East Sea on Friday, June 28, 2024. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Rashan Jefferson/The U.S. Navy via AP)

In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a U.S. fighter jet prepares to take off from USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier during the Freedom Edge exercise by the U.S., Japanese and South Korea at East Sea on Friday, June 28, 2024. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Rashan Jefferson/The U.S. Navy via AP)

FILE - The Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is anchored in Busan, South Korea, on June 22, 2024. The newly-inaugurated Freedom Edge exercise is wrapping up in the East China Sea, having brought together Japanese, South Korean and American naval assets for multi-domain maneuvers for the first time.(Song Kyung-Seok/Pool Photo via AP, File)